I have a few of these Commands myself.They were
pretty good.35mm film,George Piros mastering,etc. .I
had thought they were pretty much forgotten,as
nobody talks about them,the way they do Everest,or
any other early stereo label.I would assume the
original film is either long gone,or unusable.I
guess you might talk someone like Classic Records,or
Simply Vinyl,into pressing a batch up.Some
interested,and well-heeled benefactor might have to
help fund it,though.
Roger Kulp
Tom Fine wrote:
Hi David:
This is great info, I'm certianly not going to
berate you.
I can't understand what "last of its kind" machine
Omega was claiming to use. I had heard they used
3-track tapes played back on an Ampex 3200 transport
with MR-70 heads and electronics. If their
"last of its kind" was indeed playing films, it was
not near last of its kind. 3-track mag-film
machines are still in use all over the place. In NY,
one need only go to Astoria to see masses of
mag-film machines in daily use.
Whatever those guys out in CA told you is probably
closer to the truth than my 3rd-hand info.
Hey, if someone on this list has a viable reissue
label, let's talk about Command Classics. I think
Universal wants a pretty hefty units commitment, so
it's gotta be someone with some marketing and
distribution abilities. A 500 or 1000 unit release
won't cut it with those guys.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Lewis"
To:
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 2:38 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Vanguard Classics reappears
in 2 cd sets
Then what did DCC use to make thier reissues,a few
years back?
Tom Fine wrote: This is the key fact about
Everest, from the Vanguard Classics website:
------------------------------------
WHAT ABOUT EVEREST?
That's the most asked question from consumers who
visit our site. When
Artemis Records purchased
Vanguard Classics from the Omega Records Group in
2003, we declined to
purchase the license to the
Everest label held by Omega. We know that many of
you are looking for the
catalog of recordings
available from Everest, but Vanguard Classics no
longer distributes the
Everest label.
------------------------------------
(Tom continues...)
As I understand it, and I might be wrong ...
Everest is now owned by Universal, and Omega no
longer exists as a working
entity so they no longer
have a license to release any Everest recordings.
Universal also owns the
libraries of the only two
other labels to extensively use 35mm mag-film,
Mercury (which Universal
acquired as part of
Polygram) and Command (which was owned by former MCA
group that morphed into
Universal, acquired by
MCA as part of ABC Records).
As I understand it, and again I might be wrong,
Omega made their 3ch SACD's
from the backup 3-track
tapes (or the original sessions were done on tape,
not film), not from
Everest's magnetic films,
which I've been told are in terrible condition and
many are not around
anymore.
****
I remember speaking with Duane Martuge, who was
working as a rep for
Omega/Everest/Vanguard Classics when they first
rolled out the Everest
product line in about 1996 or so. I met him at the
Allegro Conference. Duane
said that they **did** work from the Everest films
and utilized a machine at
Sony that "was the last of its kind" to play back
the films. Apparently,
this machine was mothballed just as the Everest
project reached completion.
At one point Omega/Everest was including a little
insert with photos within
the Everest CD releases to show how they did it
technically. But do note
that the re-issue program was very limited - perhaps
only 8-16 short CDs
ever resulted from it. So Tom's assertion that "they
are in terrible
condition and may not be around anymore" might well
be correct. The
Northridge earthquake also damaged a great many of
the Everest masters - a
pity - many reels were bent in half.
Tom:
Some of the Everest jazz stuff has turned up on a
small label the name of
which escapes me (Woody
Herman, Tito Puente and some others). If I recall
correctly, they noted that
the material was
licensed from Universal, which backs up my belief
that Everest is now owned
by Universal.
The DCC reissues of Everest Jazz material were
supplied by Bernie Solomon,
who was part of Everest initially and also had a
share in DCC. These would
have been taken from tapes, and I wish that there
had been more of them done
than the couple that appeared. At the time at which
I met Bernie, in the
late 1990s, he still owned a large part of the
Everest catalogue, and had
issued some of the classical items on a terrible,
but persistent, label
called Bescol (i.e. "Bernie E. Solomon Company
Limited" or something like
that) and had leased these and still more to
LaserLight. Bernie hasn't been
dead a very long time, and if Artemis/Vanguard
decided to pass on the
Everest classical catalogue, perhaps it has reverted
to his, or someone
else's, estate. Remember that Bernie Solomon
(Everest) and Seymour Solomon
(Vanguard) were brothers, so this might complicate
matters of legacy
considerably. If Universal purchased Everest, I have
yet to hear of it, but
they don't crow very loudly when they make such
acquisitions.
Tom:
I wish there was enough interest
in the Command orchestral stuff to license and
reissue some of it. The
Pittsburgh/Steinberg stuff
was really good.
***
I am SO with you there, brother! I remember for my
ninth Christmas I told my
parents I wanted Stravinsky conducting his three big
ballets. I got the Le
Sacre and Firebird LPs but there was no Petrushka,
so Mom and Dad persuaded
me to settle for the $1.99 Pittsburgh/Steinberg
performance on Westminister
Gold. I grew to love it so much I never went back to
look for a Petrushka
with Stravinsky conducting. The Schubert symphony
disc in that Command
series was also just astounding.
Finally, I just wanted to say that I have discussed
these topics before only
to be berated on this list for repeating what guys
like Martuge, Steve
Hoffmann and Bernie Solomon said to me. Bear in mind
that the office for DCC
was not far from where I worked (as the classical
guy at the Tower Records
in Woodland Hills.) PLEASE - do not come on here and
tell me I'm a bleeping
liar and how could I stand to circulate such myths.
I have no idea why these
guys would say such things, but I was a good account
for them and perhaps
they put a little gloss on it. They did seem
surprised that I seemed to know
so much about their back catalogue and may have been
a bit guarded about it.
But I used to see Bernie in the store two and three
times a week, and I made
a point of remembering whatever he told me.
David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide
My life is the clearest proof that if you have
talent, determination and
luck, you will make it in the end: Never Give Up. -
Sir Georg Solti
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